BARCELONA
Ter Stegen post-operation update: how long will he be sidelined?
The doctor who performed the operation in Bordeaux, Amélie Léglise, spoke on SER Catalunya’s Què T’hi Jugues. She warned the first three to four weeks of recovery are vital to avoid a relapse.
Doctor Amélie Léglise, the consultant who operated on Marc-André Ter Stegen in Bordeaux last week, has given an update on the Barceloba goalkeeper in an interview with SER Catalunya’s Què T’hi Jugues programme. Léglise revealed that the German keeper underwent an endoscopy to treat his back problems (sciatica). “We did it by endoscopy with a camera. It is an extremely precise technique that reduces the risk of the operation to a minimum,” she noted.
Demanding sport
Léglise estimates that Ter Stegen will be out of action for a period of around two months. “Whether it’s a protrusion or a hernia, the time off is more or less the same. It depends on the athlete and the type of sport they do, but it is around two months. The sick leave time depends on many things. The type of injury, whether there is an associated disease or not in the disc... It depends on the type of sport, whether there is impact or not... There are athletes who are discharged in a week. In the case of a liberal worker there is no sick leave, the next day he is working. For a player, in this case a goalkeeper, the movements are different, the discs in the back take more punishment. Our intervention, however, guarantees a shorter downtime because it is less aggressive for muscle tissues than a conventional operation,” explained the French doctor.
Dr Léglise warned that there is always a risk of relapse, but that it is very low: “There is always a risk of relapse when the operation is performed. We cannot eliminate it. It is less than 3%, but that is why we have to monitor the recovery during the first three or four weeks,” she said.